Field: Asteroids
This startup is racing to mine the final frontier
AstroForge isn't afraid to take risks if it means being the first to mine asteroids for the rare metals we need for many clean energy technologies.
T-Minus: Starship reaches new heights, volunteers discover “active” asteroids, and more
Freethink counts down the biggest space news, featuring Starship's third test flight, a new Mars volcano, and more.
T-Minus: An exploding asteroid, Odie’s final transmission, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring a new DART simulation, the end of Odysseus, and more.
T-Minus: An extended asteroid mission, a high-stress moon landing, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring SLIM's reawakening, a historic moon landing, and more.
T-Minus: Water discovered on asteroids, first space factory comes home, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring the return of Varda's space factory, a Russian space weapon, and more.
T-Minus: NASA cracks asteroid capsule, Japan joins exclusive moon club, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring Japan's moon landing, NASA's asteroid sample, and more.
The 21 most exciting space missions of 2024
2024 is expected to deliver huge wins for the space industry, including 10 moon missions, more Starship launches, and a historic sun swoop.
T-Minus: Counting down the 10 greatest space stories of 2023
Freethink's countdown of the biggest space news of 2023, featuring major rocket launches, groundbreaking astronomy discoveries, and more.
T-Minus: NASA’s surprise asteroid, China’s reusable rocket, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring a surprising asteroid discovery, a new reusable rocket, and more.
T-Minus Weekly: Psyche launches, NASA unveils asteroid samples, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring the launch of the Psyche, the reveal of NASA's asteroid samples, and more.
NASA’s Psyche mission is on its way to a metal asteroid
NASA has successfully launched its Psyche mission, sending a spacecraft on a 2.5-billion-mile journey to a metal-rich asteroid.
NASA’s asteroid sample contains an abundance of carbon and water
On October 11, NASA shared its first update on the Bennu asteroid sample brought to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx mission.
T-Minus Weekly: NASA’s first asteroid sample, Stoke’s big hop, and more
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest developments in space, featuring NASA's first asteroid sample, a Curiosity milestone, and more.
NASA has retrieved its first asteroid sample
NASA has just retrieved its first asteroid sample, bringing nearly 9 ounces of the asteroid Bennu to Earth.
Evidence suggests the world’s largest known asteroid impact structure is buried deep in southeast Australia
After years of asteroid impact research, experts think the world’s largest known impact structure is buried deep in the earth in Australia.
NASA mission to a $10,000-quadrillion asteroid is two months from launch
NASA hopes to get a glimpse at Earth's core by sending a spacecraft to 16 Psyche, an metal-rich asteroid 280 million miles away.
Algorithm finds a potentially hazardous asteroid missed by NASA
HelioLinc3D, an algorithm designed to spot potentially hazardous asteroids in telescope images, just found its first threatening space rock.
A comet impact 13,000 years ago might have wiped out megafauna
Researchers note a "synchronicity" of geochemical signals suggesting that fragments of a comet struck Earth approximately 13,000 years ago.
Space could be a trillion dollar industry by 2040
Now that falling launch costs are making space more accessible, hundreds of groups are looking for ways to make money off-world.
NASA cuts odds of asteroid impact on Valentine’s Day 2046
NASA and ESA have updated their odds of 2023 DW, an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool, hitting Earth in 2046.
NASA’s “Lucy” will take a 40,000-mile detour to visit this asteroid
NASA has added a tenth asteroid flyby to the record-breaking Lucy mission so that it can test a new asteroid-tracking system.
This near-Earth asteroid is 4.2 billion years old and nearly indestructible
By analyzing just three dust particles, researchers learned that the rubble pile asteroid Itokawa is 4.2 billion years old and hard to kill.
The 12 most exciting space missions of 2023
2023 will see the launch of new rockets, the return of OSIRIS-REx, and a mission to Jupiter that could help us find extraterrestrial life.
World’s first asteroid-hunting spacecraft to launch in 2028
NASA has announced plans to launch the world’s first asteroid-hunting spacecraft — the $1.2 billion NEO Surveyor — in 2028.
Ancient killer asteroid created a megatsunami on Mars
3.4 billion years ago, an asteroid impact created a megatsunami on Mars that extended for 1500 kilometers. Here's the fascinating story.
Space ads could earn $2 million a day, say Russian researchers
Space advertising could generate a profit, even though space ads would cost $65 million each, according to Russian researchers’ calculations.
Astronomers unveil world’s largest digital camera
In 2024, the LSST Camera will begin a 10-year-long survey of space that could revolutionize astronomy — if LEOsats don’t get in the way.
NASA’s mission proves it can redirect an asteroid — and potentially save Earth
NASA has confirmed that its DART spacecraft altered the orbit of the Dimorphos asteroid — a huge win for planetary defense efforts.
How NASA plans to stop killer asteroids
NASA's planetary defense researchers are tracking potentially hazardous objects in space and developing tech to destroy or deflect them.
Webb, Hubble capture spacecraft slamming into asteroid
DART collision images captured by NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes show what happens when a spacecraft slams into an asteroid.
Watch NASA’s DART spacecraft slam into an asteroid
NASA has slammed its DART spacecraft into an asteroid in the world’s first demonstration of planetary defense technology.
NASA’s DART spacecraft is about to smash into an asteroid
The DART spacecraft is now close enough to image the asteroid system it plans to slam into as part of NASA’s planetary defense efforts.
NASA was “completely wrong” about the asteroid Bennu
It wasn’t until landing on the asteroid Bennu that NASA learned its surface was more like a plastic ball pit than the relatively solid moon.
The cosmos can kill us in many ways. But the James Webb Space Telescope can help save us
Asteroid strikes, supernova explosions, and gamma-ray bursts are just a few of the ways the cosmos can kill us.
This is the damage a tiny speck of space debris can do at 15,000mph
A crater 5 inches deep was caused by something about the size and weight of an eraser on the end of a pencil.
What happens if the Solar System’s largest comet collides with Earth?
The asteroid that caused the last mass extinction 65 million years ago was only 5 kilometers across — tiny compared to this one.
We have a new way to hunt for potentially hazardous asteroids
To help protect Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids, astronomers developed an algorithm to look for them in existing datasets.
China is going to try to move an asteroid
As part of its new planetary defense strategy, the China National Space Administration is going to launch a mission to redirect an asteroid.
New asteroid spotted just before impact with Earth
NASA successfully pinpointed almost exactly where and when a new asteroid would hit Earth’s atmosphere, before it made contact.
An asteroid could wipe out an entire city – here’s NASA’s plan to prevent catastrophe
Cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, are constantly zooming through space and often crash into our planet.
This near-Earth asteroid may be a chunk knocked off of the moon
A near-Earth asteroid discovered in 2016 may have once been part of the moon — making it unlike any space rock we’ve ever discovered.
“Pulverize It”: The plan to slice and dice space rocks
To prevent asteroid impacts, UCSB physicists suggest we slice up the space rocks using arrays of “penetrator rods.”
Nuking an asteroid heading to Earth really could protect us
Blowing up an asteroid heading to Earth with a nuclear bomb could save the planet, according to new planetary defense simulations.
Astronomers discover solar system’s fastest-orbiting asteroid
Astronomers have discovered an asteroid that orbits the sun in just 113 days, making it the fastest-orbiting asteroid in our solar system.
NASA updates the odds on Bennu asteroid hitting Earth
Using data from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, NASA has updated its predictions about the Bennu asteroid impacting Earth.
Psyche asteroid might not be a planetary core after all
The first high-res heat emissions map of the Psyche asteroid suggests the hunk of metal might not be the core of a developing planet.
Is NASA ready for an asteroid impact?
NASA is staging a week-long asteroid impact simulation during which participants will need to respond to a hypothetical impact scenario.
Can Japan’s asteroid samples show us how life began?
JAXA’s Hayabusa2 has successfully returned asteroid samples to Earth. Its next mission? Gather information that could help prevent an asteroid impact.
Bacteria could make space mining 400% more efficient
Using a bioreactor packed with bacteria could make space mining more efficient by speeding up the extraction of elements from rock.
Why NASA just landed a spacecraft on the asteroid Bennu
NASA has collected samples from the asteroid Bennu that could yield insights into everything from the origin of life to avoiding an asteroid impact on Earth.
MIT unveils simulation to help stop an asteroid impact
MIT has developed a simulation to determine the most appropriate way to stop an asteroid impact if one of the space rocks is headed toward the Earth.
What a controversial asteroid mission tells us about US space policy
Billions spent on projects of questionable benefit - like the plan to capture an asteroid - raises the question:...